Iron containing vitamin and mineral supplement preparations for oral administration are generally used to supplement an individual's diet to prevent or treat iron deficiency. Often, when a single dietary mineral deficiency occurs, other nutritional deficiencies are likely to ensue. For example, in iron deficiency anemia due to inadequacy in the diet, the likelihood exists that the diet is also low in other basic requirements. Such multiple deficiencies are apt to occur in times of increased growth or stress, as in pregnancy and lactation, when nutritional needs are high. Such deficiencies are also likely to occur in individuals whose diets are inadequate due to diet restrictions and personal idiosyncracies, and in individuals suffering from conditions known to adversely affect the absorption, utilization or excretion of essential minerals, such as iron.
Unfortunately, the absorption of iron supplements from the gastrointestinal tract is reduced in the presence of divalent non-iron mineral supplements such as magnesium, and calcium. See Goodman et al., the Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, Third Edition, page 1396 (1968), Freeman et al., Am. J. Physiol., 137, p. 706-9 (1942), and Amine et al., N. Nutrition, 101, p. 927-936 (1971). Many prenatal iron supplement compositions described in the literature accordingly contain limited quantities of calcium and/or magnesium, eg. Filibon.RTM. prenatal capsules, PDR 20th Ed., p. 670 (1965) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,431,634.
Moreover, iron containing dietary preparations can induce constipation diarrhea, and abdominal discomfort. As a result, iron supplement preparations have been formulated in sustained release waxy matrix form, e.g. Slow Fe.RTM.. It has also been proposed to incorporate multicomponent dietary supplements in a porous plastic matrix in order to release such supplments into the gastro-intestinal tract over a period of time, as see for example, U.S. Pat. No. Re. 27,107. While the formulation of iron containing multi-mineral component compositions in slow release form may reduce constipation diarrhea, and associated gastro-intestinal disturbances, the reduction of iron availability to the host due to the simultaneous release of iron, magnesium and calcium in such preparations substantially limits the desired beneficial effect.
It is an object of the present invention to obviate the deficiencies of prior multimineral preparations by providing compositions that enable the host to absorb the iron and divalent mineral components with maximum efficiency and with reduced gastrointestinal side effects.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of preventing or treating iron deficiency in a host by administering to the host an effective multimineral dietary amount of such compositions.
These and other objects of the instant invention are apparent from the following disclosures.